Broadway Show Ticket Sales Analysis w/e 03/20/2016

This past week, Broadway continued to outperform itself, finally emerging from the cold winter season. One new show began previews, Shuffle Along, which shows great promise from both a financial and a critical perspective.

This week’s notable movements on Broadway are:

Broadway Continues On Its Upswing

In the week ending March 20, 2016, the Broadway box office continued to show excellent growth, even outperforming the big leap the week prior. This past week, the overall box office across the 31 presently running show totaled to $26,631,588, which is an increase of $3,468,989 from the week before. (The previous week had an increase from the week before that of $3,207,944.) This represents an average gross per show of $859,083, up from an average of $772,087 from the week before. The average paid admission across all shows was $99.33, the average percentage reached of gross potential was 68.75%, and the average audience capacity was 87.16%. Of the 31 shows running, all but six saw an increase in ticket sales. Of shows that were running both weeks, the biggest increase was seen by The Lion King, which increased by $335,312 to reach a weekly gross of $2,044,101. Next in line, Wicked increased by $272,337 to reach a weekly gross of $1,934,807, and The Phantom of the Opera increased by $258,181 to reach a weekly gross of $981,647. Other major increases were seen by Matilda, Aladdin, Les Misérables, School of Rock, and Finding Neverland. The biggest decrease was negligible, on the part of On Your Feet, which decreased by $39,553 to reach a weekly gross of $934,149. Hamilton continued to bring in the highest percentage reached of its gross potential, with a weekly gross of $1,740,104, representing 130.4% of its potential, although that was a slight decrease of $18,451 from the week before.

New Show: “Shuffle Along”

A new show began previews this past week, on March 15, 2016. The full title is quite long: Shuffle Along, Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed. This new musical is based on a revue called Shuffle Along from the year 1921, dealing with the challenges and aftermath of that musical, and its effect on Broadway and race relations throughout the 20th century. The show is produced by Scott Rudin (The Crucible, Blackbird), directed by George C. Wolfe (Lucky Guy, The Normal Heart), and starring high profile actors Audra McDonald (Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), Brian Stokes Mitchell (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Man of La Mancha), and Billy Porter (Kinky Boots, Angels in America). The show’s first week of six performances was quite successful, especially in comparison to many of the new shows this season which found it difficult to bring in significant money right out of the gate. This past week, Shuffle Along brought in $640,453 across six performances, which represents 80.1% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $373.00, the average paid admission was $113.15, and the average audience capacity was 98.0%. This bodes quite well for this new show with a comically lengthy title dealing with serious and timely issues. It will officially open on April 28, 2016, and is scheduled for an open-ended run.
The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending March 20, 2016:

#

Show Name

GrossGross

TotalAttn

%Capacity

AvgPdAdm

4

ALADDIN

$1,570,189

13,808

99.94%

$113.72

15

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

$832,227

9,320

69.39%

$89.29

13

BEAUTIFUL

$888,029

7,581

92.36%

$117.14

25

BLACKBIRD

$483,635

6,420

79.14%

$75.33

29

BRIGHT STAR

$312,937

7,244

86.40%

$43.20

21

CHICAGO

$574,676

6,914

80.02%

$83.12

28

DISASTER!

$387,742

5,843

60.97%

$66.36

26

ECLIPSED

$419,842

5,285

82.37%

$79.44

8

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

$961,474

10,987

80.46%

$87.51

15

FINDING NEVERLAND

$825,077

10,041

83.45%

$82.17

24

FUN HOME

$504,606

5,608

94.73%

$89.98

3

HAMILTON

$1,740,104

10,753

101.75%

$161.82

30

HUGHIE

$282,706

4,217

68.28%

$67.04

20

JERSEY BOYS

$636,123

7,255

73.85%

$87.68

11

KINKY BOOTS

$903,528

9,266

81.34%

$97.51

14

LES MISÉRABLES

$874,255

10,650

94.48%

$82.09

9

MATILDA

$939,959

10,972

95.78%

$85.67

10

ON YOUR FEET!

$934,149

8,907

68.47%

$104.88

6

SCHOOL OF ROCK

$1,072,497

11,115

92.93%

$96.49

23

SHE LOVES ME

$505,150

7,833

97.14%

$64.49

19

SHUFFLE ALONG, OR, THE MAKING OF THE MUSICAL SENSATION OF 1921 AND ALL THAT FOLLOWED